The Old Folks Home

[Peep_Show]

Cool, crisp, and those at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta that were grounded by high winds yesterday got antsy and decided to take a float-about today. This was the view out my kitchen window this morning....

 

[Alaskan]

At first I was thinking that the spots were bugs or bats.

 

[Penny Hen]

I had a great time this weekend. I went with a friend to a "Dye Day" when you bring your wool or silk (fleece or yarn) and get together with other spinners and shepherds and dye from 10 in the morning to 4pm. Have a pot luck lunch in the middle of it. I always come home with dye stained hands because I can't help but touch it. Gloves just get in the way. My friend is a weaver/fiber artist but had never been to a Dye Day. She had a great time.

 

[Alaskan]

I had a great time this weekend. I went with a friend to a "Dye Day" when you bring your wool or silk (fleece or yarn) and get together with other spinners and shepherds and dye from 10 in the morning to 4pm. Have a pot luck lunch in the middle of it. I always come home with dye stained hands because I can't help but touch it. Gloves just get in the way. My friend is a weaver/fiber artist but had never been to a Dye Day. She had a great time.

That sounds like a great deal of fun.

 

[casportpony]

When in Europe (London) a few decades ago I stopped into a burger joint to grab a bite.  The first bite in I could tell it wasn't an all-beef patty.  My first and last foray into equine edibles....    People tell me goat is delish, but I've had too many caprine friends to willingly partake.   To me it would be kind of like eating dog meat.

Goats is something i think everyone should try at least once!

-Kathy

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb, as dry as it is there, some sort of tent carport might work. You'd just need one that's a bit more aerodynamic to withstand your winds.

The most hay I have been able to haul was 22 bales on the back of my truck. The Only way I can unload it is to tie a rope off and let the fence pull the hay off. I used to be alble to stack hay up to three high. So in a four by four space I can get six bale of hay stacked. 4 x 4 is a pallet. You have to keep hay off the ground or it rots. So thats six pallets. I have hay storage for that much hay. Over head "fixed" shelter rated to 100+ winds.

If I could build a wall to where my darling daughter cant "do" take out I could double that hay storage. Which was the plan when i had her shelter built... 24 x 16 for her 24 x 8 for hay.

I will still have to tarp the hay. on one side at least.

You are right Carports are tooo aerodynamic....

Though the hay itself is heavy enough to be its own anchor. Hmmm I have enough Wind disassembled carport piecs... I could build a half wall with them to hold tarps and exclude horse from munching....

Katee can lift a whole bale almost over the top of a five foot high pipe corral.... She drops it though next to the fence on the out side and disassembles it from there...

deb

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@ChickenCanoe the protein thing is just something I've read on here, not something I do, but thanks for the info, also the moulting genetics info. Yup, it's a roll away nesting box, front access. What's a trap nest?
Side notes
The weasel is gone and my neighbours horses have volunteered to cut the front lawn

Shows you can't believe everything you read on the internet.

A trap nest has a trap door that closes when the hen goes in to lay an egg. You have to release her but then you can get her leg band or wing band number so you can pedigree the eggs. That's currently the only way to do it unless you only have pairs in breeding pens.

Growing birds can make use of extra protein.
Feathers are about 90% protein so additional protein is really important during molt until the new coat is grown. That said, 20-22% should be sufficient.
Additional protein is also needed if a bird has an infection. Protein is needed to produce antibodies so during that time resistance is lowered if it can't get additional protein.
Otherwise adult hens do fine on 16-17% protein. Separate male diets can be as low as 9-10% protein without affecting viable sperm production. In fact, fertility can be improved 3% on low protein diets. Such feed is very expensive so usually isn't fed.
Excess protein is converted to uric acid and can cause gout.

While on the subject of protein, there's a concept called limiting amino acids. Chickens have 14 amino acids that are essential, just like humans have 9. If one of those are deficient, it's akin to the total crude protein being low. Animal protein usually has a complete complement of amino acids.
Also, tryptophan can have a calming effect on rooster aggression. 0.2% tryptophan is the normal level in breeder diets but levels as high as 0.75% can influence serotonin and affect behavior including hens that exhibit hysteria. I read that as some Mediterranean breeds.

 

[perchie.girl]

I had a great time this weekend. I went with a friend to a "Dye Day" when you bring your wool or silk (fleece or yarn) and get together with other spinners and shepherds and dye from 10 in the morning to 4pm. Have a pot luck lunch in the middle of it. I always come home with dye stained hands because I can't help but touch it. Gloves just get in the way. My friend is a weaver/fiber artist but had never been to a Dye Day. She had a great time.

There has been a couple of looms on Craigslist here... I toyed with the idea of learning to weave. One was a simple affair simple set up they wanted 400 dollars for it.... The other was a big wide one with lots of bells and whistles.... they wanted 4000 for it.... Whew.

FWIW.... The first digital punch cards for programming was for big commercial looms.... Holes drilled in wood mounted on a chain pulled through a reader that had pins that would drop through the holes.... Picking what ever strand needed to be excluded from the process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom

deb

 

[dsqard]

Alaskan those are gorgeous pictures of where you live. Very "fallish" I am hoping to get a chance to post some of the pictures from SCG's and my adventures into the canyon this evening. We worked our tails off during the day hiking and would just about fall into bed in the evening. I haven't even had a chance to go through them all. It was a most excellent adventure e If anyone is contemplating a trip to the Grand Canyon, I highly recommend it. You have two options, a full day of driving (or taking the free shuttle) between scenic outlooks or more than one day to do hikes below the rim. I suggest the hiking mainly because most people don't see the "inside" of the canyon but if you cannot hike, the diving tour is pretty spectacular too. I figure we hiked 13 miles over the three days and went up and down over 10,000 feet over the four trails we took.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Very interesting...

I used layer pellets with my whole flock... Before. But when I go back to raising poultry again I will be going to a Flock raiser.... Hopefully fermented to get the the most out of the feed. Then offereing up Oyster shell free choice. But because my chickens wont be allowed to free range I want to supplement their diet with an all protien kibble.... Like catfish chow or kitten chow. to replace bugs they may have gotten on their own....

I also fed a flake of Alfalfa to each of my pens for forage Something to dig at and peck.... I tried pellets like rabbit or softened horse pellets... But they seemed to enjoy the Disassembling of a flake of Alfalfa. Of course they waste a bunch.... I am ok with that.

deb